HARLINGEN — Former City Commissioners Tudor Uhlhorn, Jay Meade and their wives have filed a lawsuit arguing the city’s new redistricting map is unconstitutional because it doesn’t allow as many as 3,820 District 2 registered voters to cast ballots for their commissioner in the May election.
Brenham-based attorney Andy Taylor filed the lawsuit Monday with the Texas Supreme Court against Commissioners Richard Uribe, Frank Puente and Rene Perez, the City Commission and the city of Harlingen, requesting justices “invalidate” the new redistricting plan or order commissioners to call a special election for the city’s five voting districts.
On Wednesday, Puente stood by the city’s new single-member district boundary lines, arguing the courts have ruled such plans constitutional.
In a statement Wednesday, Uhlhorn and his wife Hellen and Meade and his wife Elena argue Uribe, Puente and Perez “ignored” their constituents’ constitutional right to vote for their commissioner in the May 7 election.
“The right to vote, whether it be for president or city commissioner, is a sacred and fundamental right in this country,” they stated, arguing they and as many as 3,820 District 2 registered voters “have been deprived of our right to vote for our city commissioner for at least five years since we last got to vote in May 2019 and will not be
allowed to vote again until May or November 2024.”
Uribe, Puente and Perez “had a constitutional obligation to redraw the political boundaries in such a way as to comply with the ‘one-person, one-vote’ requirements for equal population of the districts in question,” Uhlhorn, Meade and their wives state.
In their statement, they accuse Uribe, Puente and Perez of redrawing the city’s district map’s boundaries to expand their voter base.
“We are taking this action to protect that (voting) right since Commissioners Uribe,
Puente, and Perez apparently only care about their own political interests,” they state. “They can say their vote was not about politics. It seems that was the only thing it was about.”
“We believe that a person elected to the city commission represents all the citizens of Harlingen and not just those who live in that person’s district,” they state. “Apparently, Commissioners Richard Uribe, Frank Puente, and Rene Perez do not agree. Last week, the three of them voted to approve an unconstitutional district map which completely ignores the rights of almost 4,000 registered
voters in District 2.”
In the statement, they argue Puente, District 2’s representative, “is not even concerned about the rights of his own constituents who elected him.”
In response, Puente argued the Supreme Court has ruled redistricting plans staggering election cycles are constitutional.
“It’s constitutionally legal,” he said. “Everyone can still vote — there’s no voter suppression. If the Supreme Court is not going to review other similar lawsuits, I don’t see this one having any teeth. It happens every 10 years all over the country after a Census is conducted.”
Meanwhile, Mayor Chris Boswell said he supports arguments made by Uhlhorn, Meade and their wives.
“As I understand it, the relief being sought is to restore the right of disenfranchised voters in the district,” he said. “Of course, I support that position.”
In their lawsuit, Uhlhorn, Meade and their wives argue Uribe, Puente and Perez denied them their right vote based on the City Charter and the city’s redistricting plan.
“Under the Harlingen City Charter and the redistricting plan which has been in effect for the past decade, registered voters residing in Districts 1 and 2 were constitutionally entitled to vote for their candidates of choice in the next round of the Harlingen city commission elections in May 2022,” the lawsuit states.
“By moving registered voters from Precincts 32 and 35 within District 2 to District 3, (the new plan) illegally and unconstitutionally stripped those specific registered voters of their constitutionally protected right to vote under the Texas Constitution because there are voters from Precincts 32 and 35 that will not have the opportunity to vote again until 2024, when the elections for District 3 are scheduled to be held.”
The lawsuit states Uribe, Puente and Perez failed to adopt two proposed plans which gave all residents the right to vote in the May election.
Uhlhorn, Meade and their wives argue Uribe, Puente and Perez didn’t have “the discretion to do what they did, which was to ‘remedy’ the population inequality by needlessly and gratuitously disenfranchising thousands of voters where, as was the case here, population equality can be otherwise achieved,” the lawsuit states.
If Uribe, Puente and Perez refuse to constitutionally redraw the districts’ boundaries, Uhlhorn, Meade and their wives said, they request the court order them to immediately call a May 7 special election for the city’s five districts under the new redistricting plan.
